Published: April 16, 2010

As the April 21st deadline looms for a strike by the city’s 30,000 unionized doormen and porters, Fresh Direct, the online grocery purveyor, said on Friday that a strike would affect the delivery of their orders.

The company did not say how many of their 600,000 local customers would be affected. Nor did they elaborate on what customers would do in the interim. (Perhaps walk downstairs and simply let the delivery folks inside without doorman assistance. Or maybe - gasp - schedule a delivery for when someone is home).

This morning, as if gearing up for a blizzard or a hurricane, the company sent a somewhat breathless email to customers, urging them to stockpile their favorite Chef’s Table items, pallets of Diet Coke and sundries now, before the coming doorman apocalypse.

“We encourage customers in potentially affected buildings to stock up now,” the company said (bold and underlines theirs).

At issue in the potential strike is a proposal put forth by the city’s Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations, which represents roughly 3,000 building owners, to reduce wages and benefits, among other things, for its workers. The owners said the measures are necessary due to hard economic times - something which the union disputes.

If no deal is reached, a strike would take place at 12:01am on Wednesday.

In the meantime, Fresh Direct has its own labors issues to contend with. As Crain’s New York Business reported Friday, unions are making progress in organizing delivery workers - after two previous failed attempts. And this time, they appear to have various City Council members willing to fight on their behalf.